27 April, 2006
Israel's ambassador to Rome has condemned the behavior of left-wing demonstrators who had burned Israeli flags at a commemoration of Italy's wartime liberation from the fascists. "As a Jew and an Israeli I am filled with humiliation and anger at the sight of the barbaric behavior of the fascists of the far left who profaned the sacredness of the liberation celebration," ambassador Ehud Gol said in a statement. He added that this behavior violated "the memory of the victims from the Jewish Brigades of Italy," Jewish groups who helped in the fight to liberate the country from the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini in 1945.
Tens of thousands of people turned out for a rally on Tuesday afternoon in Milan. A small group of demonstrators carrying Palestinian flags burned two Israeli flags. Hostile demonstrators also whistled at former fighters of the Jewish Brigade. The annual procession commemorates the anniversary of the start of an armed insurrection in the north of Italy against Mussolini's German-backed regime in 1945. Gol called on Italy to apologize to the families of Jewish fighters who helped liberate the country. Italy's prime minister-designate Romano Prodi earlier called the head of Italy's Jewish community, Claudio Morpurgo, to condemn the anti-Israeli "acts of intolerance" and to express his "sadness" about what had happened.
